Monthly Archives: August 2017

Above are several images of the same rock sample: a highly deformed quartzose siltstone collected from the Womble Formation, Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas. The uppermost image shows a cut and polished surface. The green line that’s been added to the picture defines a fracture that split the sample after it was cut. Ordinarily, that would be a bitter turn of events but, in this case, it was a fortunate accident. The fracture provides a rare, multi-dimensional view inside a tightly folded rock (lower photo). Luckily, the fracture propagated across the bedding rather than breaking along a bed, which makes the beds of the fold appear to fan out like a deck of cards showing a lot of the detail of the structure.